Evyiani-Cyronian War (843-992)
From the day Habien Gelebeth I and his soldiers stepped off the boats onto Victoria Island to the day his grandson, Habien Gelebeth III, defeated Ulcia Hauali at Fort Letica the Cryonic invaders and the Evyiani people fought. Each campaign lead by the Gelebeths fought for a different major island. Each minor island fell to naval forces earlier than the 8th century. Habien Gelebeth I: Victoria Island & Aequor Island Habien Gelebeth I lead the most successful campaigns of all three Gelebeths. His forces employed Total Warfare tactics of burning down villages and religious temples to scare the Evyiani people into submission. Victoria Island fell first. Hoards of retreating Evyiani people to the islands located to the North informed the Cyronians that there were in fact more islands to conquer. Gelebeth sent his troops, under command of Horace Cornivil, towards Aequor Island after complete control of Victoria island was achieved. Expecting an easy victory, Gelebeth's fight for Aequor ending up lasting 5 years. Organized resistance from the Kingdom of Evyian grew remarkably after the capture of Aequor and would plague Gelebeth's advance until his death at the Battle of Sceli in 871 A.D. While Gelebeth I's tactics were extremely effective, they created a hatred of Cyron in the minds of the Evyiani people that would result in the continuation of the war for over 120 years. Habien Gelebeth II: Cocoes Island and Scopulus Troubles Taking command of Cyronic forces in Evyian following his father’s death in 871, Habien Gelebeth began his quest to see his father's dreams a reality at the age of 29. Habien II was the only son of Habien and Calias Gelebeth and therefore the heir to both his father's fortune and troubles. Upon Habien's arrival to Evyian, he immediately formed a council comprised of his top generals, military advisors, and scholars. In 872, this concil concluded that a double strike on Cocoes Island would allow for the larger Cyronic army to split the Evyiani defenders on Cocoes, who had held against three attacks thus far, into two sections. Following the guidance of his concil, Habien's forces crushed the Evyiani defense under Kahee Kuhkilani in four months and ended all resistance in six. Following Habien's success on Cocoes, his concil launched the invasion of Scopulus Island in 873, landing at Mistra. The invasion forces, totaling just over 60,000, were met near modern-day New Cyron by Lahani Kulala with an army of over 200,000. This battle ended with the deaths of all 60,000 Cryonic troops, to around 110,000 Evyiani. Regardless of their losses, the Evyiani people saw that the Cryonic people could be beat, and it brought a massive moral boost to them all. Habien, now extremely worried about the number of Evyiani people on Scopulus, approved of four more invasions over a period of 10 years. Three failed, and the final one only gave Habien a foothold on Scopulus. However, even with this one victory Habien's political career came crashing down around him. The Emperor of Cyron denied all of Habien's requests for more troops, and even threaten to execute him for his failure on Scopulus. Habien Gelebeth II stayed in Evyian until he died at the age of 68, only returning to Cyron for the occasional check-up on his family. In this period of disgrace, however, he did create a series of fortresses on all controlled islands and the northern tip of Scopulus. These forts, although minor at the time, would be key to the victory of his grandson, Habien Gelebeth III. Habien Gelebeth III: Scopulus Island and Victory Until recently, the time gap between the death of Habien Gelebeth II and the birth of Habien Gelebeth III have tied the two together as Uncle and Nephew. It is now known that the Habien Gelebeth III is truly Habien Gelebeth IV. Habien Gelebeth III, had a time of control over the Gelebeth Enterprise in Evyian. However, his lack of victory and loyalty to the wishes of his grandfather, Habien Gelebeth I, had him removed from that family just prior to his death in 986. The name Habien Gelebeth III was then passed down to the real Habien III's son Cornelius Gelebeth. Cornelius was born late in his father's life, and gained the name of Habien Gelebeth III at the age of 18. A much bigger risk taker than both his father and grandfather, Habien III spent the entire fortune of the Gelebeth family in order to buy more weapons, ships and supplies for the Cryonician Soldiers stationed in Evyian. At the time Habien the III gained control of Evyian, the entire expedition was extremely unpopular in all of Cyron. With his family's name and fortune at stake, Habien III set out to finish his great-grandfather's dream of conquering all of Cyron. In 990, following a brief period of refurbishing the forces in Evyian, Habien III took an army of 100,000 into the heart of Scopulus. Met by Evyian king, Ulcia Haulia, near modern-day ''Allie ''by an army of over 200,000, Habien engaged in a bloody battle using the newest tactics brought over from Cyron. Half way into the battle, Ulcia's light infantry struck Habien's left flank. Instead of listening to his generals and moving reserves to combat them, Habien called for a retreat. This move is argued through history as Habien's best strategy, or Habien's dumb luck. Ulcia saw Habien retreating and assumed victory. The entire Evyian army then began a massive game of cat-and-mouse with Habien. Habien's rear-guard was torn up by Ulcia's vanguard, but Habien's forces reached their destination of Fort Letcia. With the Cryonian soldiers now behind the walls of the massive stone fort, Ulcia had no choice but to attack or let Habien come back the next day with a superior force. That night Ulcia struck. His forces assaulted the walls for over 8 hours before Ulcia called a retreat. By this time, Habien's rested troops broke out and destroyed Ulcia's fatigued army. Ulcia Haulia was forced to sign a treaty putting the entire remainder of his kingdom under Cyronic control. This massive victory was brought so soon and so fast by Habien Gelebeth III that the Emperor of Cryon permitted Gelebeth to be the Emperor of the "Merick Isles" as they were now named. This province had Simi-autonomy within the nation of Cyron and would eventually become an independent nation itself. Category:History